CERTAIN FEATURES OF GERMAN 
FORESTRY 



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HOMER D. HOUSE 



REPRINTED FROM THE REPORT OF THE STATE BOTANIST FOR 1913 



Ms2r-D 14-2000 



ALBANY 

THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

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} CERTAIN FEATURES OF GERMAN FORESTRY 

BY HOMER D. HOUSE 

German forestry, perhaps because it is the most scientifically 
developed of any in Europe, has been for many years a source of 
deep interest and profitable study on the part of American students 
of forest management and utilization. There are those who predict 
for America, before many decades shall have passed, forestry con- 
ditions similar to those now existing in Germany. That we may 
in time develop in America a scientific as well as practical scheme 
of forestry, no one can doubt, "but that it will in any way resemble 
German methods seems wholly improbable, unless we can make 
over our methods of taxation and administration of public lands. 
German forestry pays its way. Forestry is a sort of government 
trust in Germany. Without the connivance of the government it 
would no more pay to grow timber for any purpose other than for 
firewood in Germany than in the United States. Germany imports 
vast quantities of timber, but the duty is so adjusted that it is a 
paying proposition for the German states to invest money in long- 
time rotations of forest crops. With a high stumpage value, the 
owners of the German forests, either private or state, can afford to 
make a more complete utilization of- all the products of the forest, 
can afford more careful methods in "logging, and can afford the 
expense of replanting and protection. The entire expense is put 
where it belongs, that is, on everybody, because everybody is directly 
or indirectly a consumer of forest products. I wonder how many 
advocates of conservation of our forest resources in the United 
States realize that low tariff on imported timber means low stump- 
age values in our own forests and that low stumpage values mean 
waste and high speed in lumbering? 

The German forests present an almost endless variety of con- 
ditions with respect to management and utilization, and the observant 
forester will find therein much food for thought in connection with 
forest conditions which prevail at home and he will discover therein 
many new ideas that will be of benefit to him in coping with 
American problems in forestry. 

The following sketches are taken at random from my notes with 
a view of presenting characteristic and interesting methods of pro- 
cedure in sylviculture, management and utilization, particularly of 
such ranges in the German forests as may well pay any student of 
forestry to visit who has the opportunity to travel. 

3 



I THE PINERIES OF EBERSTADT NEAR DARMSTADT_ 
The forest range of Eberstadt consists of both town and state 
(Hesse-Darmstadt) forests, some 2500 acres, under the direction of 
Geh. Forstrat Joseph, an elderly man of kindly and delightful 
personality. The activity of the state in buying up odd or unpro- 
ductive strips of privately owned land has resulted in the same 
policy by the town of Eberstadt, so that there are few privately 
owned forests here. Natural seed regeneration of the Scotch pine, 
which is the principal tree here on the sandy plains of the Rhine 
valley, has not done well. This is in striking contrast to the pineries 
of Ysenburg, 20 miles north, where the luxuriant natural regenera- 
tion is depended upon almost wholly for reforestation. 

The rotation at Eberstadt is approximately 120 years, at which 
time the larger trees attain an average diameter, breast high, of 12 to 
16 inches. The cuts are made in winter and in the succeeding winter 
the ground is dug over to a depth of about 14 inches, the best soil of 
the forest floor being turned under and the poor sand from below 
placed on top. This will force the roots to go deeper for their food. 
In April, one year old seedlings of Scotch pine are planted, and be- 
tween the rows, in May, potatoes will be cultivated. This method of 
" tongya " gets rid in a large measure of the weeds and soil fungi 
which might be harmful to the young pine, especially Hysterium 
p i n i . At the time of the logging operations there were left stand- 
ing, in the majority of cases, about eight of the best trees to an acre, 
to run through the next rotation as " veterans." In addition to the 
increment yield of these trees, which takes place practically without 
injury to the growth of the next rotation, the price increment of 
these veterans rises from a stumpage value of under $40 to over 
$60 a thousand. 

The cost an acre of reforestation at Eberstadt is: 

To dig over the soil $27 . 50 

For plants and planting 10.50 

For potatoes 4.00 

For planting and cultivating potatoes 6.00 

For weeding, paris-greening, etc 8.00 

Making a total gross expense of $56.00 

About 14CX) pine seedlings are planted to the acre and about 6 
hundredweight of potatoes are used on each acre. The net returns 
from the potatoes usually average about $20 an acre, which leaves 
a net planting expense of $36 an acre. Adding this to the value 
of the land, which is here as high as $100 to $150 an acre, to obtain 



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the amount of the original investment, and figuring at 6 per cent 
compound interest and including also taxation and protection, one 
can imagine that at the end of 120 years the value of the Scotch 
pine produced will scarcely yield a profitable return upon the in- 
vestment, not even with the present high value of timber in Germany. 

As the oberforster, however, is required by regulation to replant, 
the net planting expense of $36 is charged by him to the logging 
expense of the last rotation and the new growth starts with a clean 
bill of health, financially. It is burdened with only the soil value, 
taxation and protection expense upon the books ; and the deduction 
of $36 from the receipts of the sale of timber does not seriously 
effect the profitable appearance of the forest accounts. In other 
words, the unique thing about this range is that merely by the 
method of bookkeeping the forest investment represented at Eber- 
stadt is a profitable one instead of a loss, and the planting expense 
does not hang with its accruing interest as a burden upon the finan- 
cial success of the next rotation, to be eliminated, possibly, only 
by the first or second thinnings. 

Because of the abundance of rabbits and deer, all the young 
plantations must be fenced. Woven wire fences are necessary, for 
which the annual expense on this range of 2500 acres is $500, but 
the item does not appear in the planting expense. There is an 
annual revenue from hunting privileges of $2000, and here again 
the oberforster shows his keen business ability in keeping down the 
value of the investment by charging this fencing expense to the 
revenues received from hunting privileges, rather than to the cost 
of reforestation. As a result of all this the range yields an annual 
net revenue of something over 3 per cent. It must be borne in 
mind, however, that the gross receipts are very large and that the 
cause of the low net revenue which prevails in practically all German 
forests (rarely rising to 6 per cent) is due to the relatively high 
valuation placed upon the soil in estimating the value of the invest- 
ment. 

2 THE PINERIES OF YSENBURG 

Ysenburg is situated on the level, sandy plain of the Rhine valley, 
a few miles south of Frankfurt. Three or four centuries ago the 
holdings of the princes of Ysenburg constituted one of the hundreds 
of small principalities of the old German empire. Napoleon re- 
duced these to but a few in number and the Landgraf (now.Gross- 
herzog or Grand Duke) of Hesse-Darmstadt received dominion over 
Ysenburg. The princes, however, retained their land, if not their 



6 

political importance, until they were forced, in order to satisfy their 
creditors, to sell out to the government in 1890 at a price of $300 an 
acre. Their forest lands embraced about 4000 acres within a solid 
boundary and the event was notable in being one of the few large 
sales of timber land in Germany. A few years later the state govern- 
ment sold a slice of this land containing 125 acres suitable for villa 
sites at a price of $3000 an acre, the stumpage not included. This 
strip is a fine stand of Scotch pine, bordering the macadam road 
leading west from the station of Ysenburg. It was seed planted on 
very poor sandy soil, some 70 years ago. 

Some of the former princes of Ysenburg apparently realized the 
importance of careful forest management. The records of this 
particular forest show that in 1761 it consisted of decrepit beech 
and oak woods, the remnant of the primeval Rhine valley forest 
which was entirely oak and beech with no pine, the pine being intro- 
duced to reforest the drifting sand which followed the deforestation 
of the Rhine valley in many places a century and a half ago. These 
stands of Ysenburg in 1761 had been ruined by continuous cutting 
and pasturage. In 1762 regulations were promulgated which pro- 
vided that: 

The best oak and beech be conserved; 
Restocking areas must be fenced against grazing; 
Seed planting of conifers be made in blank places ; 
Cutting be done only in winter ; 

Use of wooden fences forbidden because of the threatened fuel famine 
(in 1762 observe!) ; 
The villagers. ordered to plant willow and alder along their streams; 
Only invalids allowed to keep goats by grace of a medical certificate. 

At that time one-third of the land was without timber and re- 
generation failed continuously because of mice, drought, insects, 
late frosts, etc. The annual production between 1762 and 1784 was 
one-eighth of a cord an acre, which shows how extremely decrepit 
these forests must have been. 

Today the pineries of Ysenburg are among the finest and yield 
about the highest net revenue of any in the Rhine valley. The 
method used to secure regeneration is totally unlike that employed 
at Eberstadt and yet the type of soil seems about the same. When 
the pines are about 80 years old and about 10 inches in diameter, 
cuttings (seed cuttings and preparatory cuttings) are made in such 
a way as to open up the crown. There results a luxuriant natural 
regeneration which indicates that there must be more fertility present 
than in the soil of the Eberstadt pineries. When this regeneration 



underneath the old stand is well established a heavy, final cut is 
made, leaving only a few trees to the acre to run through the next 
rotation as " veterans." The regeneration at this time is particularly 
thick, estimated to consist of fully 30,000 young trees to the acre 
and forming almost impenetrable thickets. In the resulting struggle 
among these 30,000 seedlings for dominance, clean and slender boles 
result. In taking out the final cut, naturally considerable damage 
is done to the young stand, but it is surprising how quickly these 
gaps close up even where no planting is done to " doctor " them up. 
The German forester dislikes to see a vacant patch of ground in the 
woods and usually plants something there immediately, although in 
many cases it is unnecessary and the results of his planting may be 
choked to death by the rapidity of the growth of the surrounding 
forest. 

Conditions sometimes get the best of even the German forester, 
for in some compartments either too much delay has been exercised 
in making the final cut or the regeneration came faster than was 
expected, for it is so high and dense that irreparable damage will 
result when the final cut is made. Young trees can stand much 
abuse, but not when they are 15 feet tall. The last cut before the 
final one leaves about 75 fine standards to the acre, so that the 
regeneration takes place by no means under conditions that could 
be called " open." 

All compartments, however, of the Ysenburg range are not so 
fine as the ones described above and which happen to be the ones 
nearest to the station. Some compartments are very poor and the 
pines are porcupinelike and scattered, having suffered from un- 
usually sterile soil, mice, grubs, and other enemies. The white pine, 
where used under these conditions, seems to be making a better 
showing than the Scotch pine, but the expense of replacing the 
Scotch pine by white pine is high and out of keeping with any results 
that will be obtained for a long time to come. 

A particular compartment at Ysenburg has been given over for 
many years to the experiment upon Borgrave's method of thinning. 
Thinnings, properly speaking, are for the purpose of reducing the 
investment or for the improvement of the remaining stand, and if 
a regeneration results it is merely incidental. Seed cuttings and 
preparatory cuttings (often miscalled thinnings in the United States) 
are for the purpose of regeneration, absolutely and only, and are 
not properly to be called thinnings, but cuttings. 

Borgrave would take out one-fourth of the volume in one-seventh 



8 

of the trees every ten years. By this means he would reduce the 
investment and extend the rotation. The obvious advantages are: 
the reduction of the investment; greater remunerativeness of the 
cuttings ; the rotation is extended perhaps 200 years ; sylvicultural 
charges are reduced to a minimum ; the smaller trees left are cleanest 
and will produce constantly better and better logs. 

On the other hand is the fact that he takes the trees nearest the 
saw-log size and which will have the greatest price increment in the 
next few years. He cuts away the money makers, for these large 
trees (one-seventh of the total number) will furnish 90 per cent of 
the increment if left. If gaps result, some of the possible increment 
of the next largest trees will escape, weeds will result and the soil 
run wild. 

Under conditions as they existed in Germany a few years ago, 
his method had, from a financial standpoint, much to recommend it, 
and it happens that at Ysenburg even now the difference between 
the price of saw logs and mine props is not very great. As the 
Scotch pine, however, sold at an average of $6 a thousand' twenty 
years ago and sells for $14 today (on the stump), few German 
foresters are anxious to reduce their investment, so that Borgrave's 
system, pure and simple, as is being carried out here to its logical 
end as a matter of experiment, is not apt to be seen elsewhere, 
although the influence of his reasoning is frequently to be noted in 
the system of management practised in many places. 

Another small compartment of the Ysenburg range shows that 
the German forester, like all of us, sometimes makes sad mistakes. 
Oak and Scotch pine in alternating rows, fully 5 feet apart, were 
planted by the " Tongya " ^ method 35 years ago. They wanted 
oak, and the pine was meant to be merely an usher growth to pro- 
tect the oak against the frost, which is bad here (the frost level 
being 9 to 10 feet above the level of the soil), and expected to cut 
out the pine as the oak gained a position of independence. Today 
the oaks are nearly gone, having been choked out by the pine in 
spite of attempts to favor the oak by lopping off many of the pines. 
As they are 10 feet apart, they look today like a thicket of Appa- 
lachian scrub pine. 

The oberforster has also been troubled severely in some compart- 
ments by the work of the cutworm upon young plantations, but he 



1 Tongya: a term introduced by Schlich, indicating the cultivation of 
potatoes, beans etc., between the rows of young trees for two or three seasons 
to aid the growth of the trees and help offset the expense of planting and 
weeding. 



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noticed that this damage was always slight, for some unknown 
reason, in the vicinity of mature stands. He has largely obliterated 
that damage by making his cuttings in strips from 75 to 100 feet 
in width, leaving stands more or less mature upon either side, until 
the planted strip has attained a safe size. These strips, in various 
stages of development, present a curious appearance, and they are 
of course on soils that will not yield the luxuriant natural regenera- 
tion that obtains in the. compartments nearest the Ysenburg station. 
Under such impoverished soil conditions, the oberforester may 
eventually be forced to adopt the expensive method in vogue at 
Eberstadt. 

At Ysenburg is one of the few, if not the only one, of the strictly 
forest railroads in Germany. It consists of a narrow gauge line 
running from Ysenburg down through the Mitteldick range to the 
river Main. Its poor success is evidence of the uselessness of rail- 
road transportation in a large range where the woods products go 
out in many different directions and which is traversed by excel- 
lent stone roads, as are the Ysenburg and Mitteldick ranges which 
adjoin. 

3 MITTELDICK FORESTS 

The Mitteldick range adjoins the Ysenburg ranges on the west 
and was, originally, under the dominion of the princes of Ysenburg, 
but is now a state (Hesse-Darmstadt) forest. The Scotch pine 
stands here are similar in every respect to those described on the 
Ysenburg range. The object of particular interest on this range are 
the oak stands; remnants of the primeval Rhine valley forests. 
They are maintained today in the form of " shelter wood group 
types of regeneration." The groups are particularly dense and 
thicketlike, and form an interesting sight, always highest in the 
middle, and spreading toward each other as the seed years and 
soil conditions allow. Forstmeister Hillerich aims to join these 
groups at a time when he shall have finished cutting out the remain- 
ing 15 to 20 old oaks for each acre of the original stand. All 
stages are to be seen from the beginning of tiny groups in the open- 
ings of the medium aged oak forests to large masses of groups now 
fully united and from which the last of the old oaks have been 
removed. 

Where the shelterwood group method of regeneration has not 
been a success, and it is not always a success because of unfavorable 
soil conditions in some places, the Forstmeister has resorted to other 
means of securing an oak stand. One large strip was planted, 16 



10 

years ago, to oak acorns, very densely; and it appears that this 
method is particularly successful just here, and would seem to be 
preferable and cheaper than waiting for the uncertain and slow 
shelterwood method. 

On other compartments of the Mitteldick range the growth of 
oak has been induced under pine standards, about 120 years old. 
The pines are fine, but the oak is generally crooked in spite of its 
relative density. It is planned gradually to remove the pines, which 
number about 20 to the acre, and see if the oak improves in quality. 

The German forester as a rule loves beech, which is in youth a 
shade-loving species, and one finds a great variety of methods by 
which the beech is utilized in German sylviculture. The German 
forester calls the beech the " mother of the soil," possibly because 
it forms an alkaline litter instead of an acid litter as results from 
the fall of the oak foliage. At Mitteldick is to be seen several 
methods of handling beech growth, two of which are rather note- 
worthy. In certain compartments an abundance of beech seeds 
have been sown in drills or furrows beneath rather dense stands of 
Scotch pine about 60 years old. The result is rather startling to the 
American accustomed only to seeing our native forests of pine or 
spruce with only a scanty undergrowth. A dense thicket of beech 
springs up, almost impenetrable in places, and wherever gaps occur 
in the forest crown overhead or where cuttings are made the beech 
rapidly assumes the dominant position, but under the thicker pines it 
remains in suppression for many years, in this respect not unlike the 
spruce. A similar management of beech is to be seen in the 
Darmstadt city forests (plate 3) and in other ranges of the Rhine 
valley. 

Another compartment of mixed oak, beech, hornbeam, and other 
hardwoods had been likewise underplanted with beech seeds in 
furrows, and after an interval of about three years, at which time 
I saw the compartment under a light coat of snow (plate 4), it 
looked not unlike a vast collection of nursery beds containing tiny 
beeches all about of a size. Such operations must naturally follow 
good seed years. 

4 THE FRANKFURT TOWN FORESTS 

The Frankfurt town forests adjoin the Ysenburg and Mitteldick 
ranges on the north and are therefore most easily reached from 
Ysenburg station. The line separating these ranges is also the 
boundary here between Prussia and Hesse-Darmstadt, so that the 
effects of radically different forest administrations can be seen on 



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these adjoining ranges. Like the former ranges, most of the Frank- 
furt range Hes in the frost dells of the Rhine valley, but within 
short distances there is much diversity in the quality of the soil, 
and in consequence a corresponding diversity of stands. 

Along a small stream close to the suburban villa colony of Neu- 
Ysenburg is a stand of hardwoods which contains some fine alders 
up to 2 feet in diameter, not very straight but about the best seen 
anywhere in Germany. This stand also contains some excellent 
maple, ash, basswood, hornbeam, oak and beech. The hornbeam 
logs sell, in the woods, on the ground, for $35 a thousand feet, board 
measure, and are used in the manufacture of waterwheel cogs. The 
oak, which is here of fair quality, brings $31 a thousand feet for 
ties and veneers. The best veneer logs of oak in this compartment 
were about 24 inches in diameter and contained about 350 board 
feet, on the average, and sold at auction there in the woods for 
about $82 each. 

A mixed hardwood forest of this type is the best place to see the 
attention to detail and order which the German forester brings to 
his operations (plate 5). The firewood resulting from the trunks 
and limbs of the trees unsuitable for timber, is piled into neat cubic 
meter piles of split oak, split maple, split alder, round oak, round 
maple, etc. The smaller and more crooked branchwood and root- 
wood of each species is also piled separately, and for each and 
every one of these " grades " of firewood the forest administration 
receives a different price. The small limbs and twigs are also 
gathered up and tied into bundles which are sold for a small sum, 
but apparently not at a profit. That genius is an infinite capacity for 
taking pains finds here a visible demonstration in forestry. 

The Frankfurt town forests also contain an interesting stand of 
American white pine (plate 6), about 60 years old. It was origin- 
ally made with alternating rows of spruce and oak. The oak is now 
nowhere to be seen, and the spruce has survived only in part. The 
white pine having dominated the situation from the start is very 
branchy and unfit for a high grade of lumber, and yet the revenue 
from this stand is very large, but from the sale of cones to seed 
establishments rather than from timber. The pines number about 
150 to the acre, and spruce less than half as many, out of an 
original 1500 pines and spruce to the acre. The total sectional area 
of the white pine alone is 153.6 square feet, which with a form 
height of 150 means a stand of 35,000 board feet to the acre. This 
is far from being the best stand of white pine in this part of 



12 

Germany but it is of particular interest as showing the results of 
mistaken ideas in regard to the management of white pine with 
spruce ■ and oak, mistakes which are not being repeated in later 
plantation of white pine throughout this part of Germany. The 
yield of cones for seeds alone saves the plantation from being a 
complete failure and from having been removed long ago. 

Several compartments of the Frankfurt woods still maintain the 
stands of beech with oak and other hardwoods which comprised 
the primeval timber of this region. The beech is about 120 years 
old and about the best, considering the large acreage devoted to it, 
to be seen anywhere in the Rhine valley. In the depressions (frost 
dells) alone are there any signs that the beech is not vigorous, and 
there the abundance of hornbeam makes up for it. Underlying 
limestone, close to the surface, probably accounts to a large extent 
for the good growth of these hardwoods upon a surface soil which 
seems unusually sterile. The German forester judges the fertility 
of the soil largely by the relative growth of wild grasses thereon, 
and in most cases that appears to be an excellent index of the quality 
of the soil. 

Not the least interesting feature of the Frankfurt forests is the 
existence here of the oldest artificially planted stand of Scotch 
pine in Germany. This stand is now a little over 200 years old and 
looks wonderfully fine. There are about 60 trees to the acre, averag- 
ing over 20 inches in diameter, and some are as thick as 36 inches, 
breast high. A single tree recently cut, contained 4100 board feet 
of lumber. In 1876 a violent wind storm took down many of the 
trees and since then the previously suppressed beech and hornbeam 
have made a vigorous growth which shows that nature without aid 
will not reproduce the Scotch pine where it is not native. Only by 
carefully opening up the crowns, as practised on the Ysenburg range, 
can a pine regeneration be induced. A sudden and large opening 
of the crowns brings on the hardwoods again as in the primeval 
type. The old pines, as a result of the storm, all lean toward the 
northeast. The stand contains from 25,000 to 30,000 feet an acre, 
which is good considering the relatively few trees per acre and the 
large quantity which has been removed in the past according to the 
records of this department. The remaining stand will produce 
lumber of an exceptionally high grade. From the logs upon the 
ground it was impossible to determine their form height, but it 
certainly exceeded 200. 

From observations previously noted in connection with oak planted 



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Plate 8 




A stand of spruce on the " Throm," one of the high summits 
of the Odenwald north of the little town of Wald- 
Michelbach 



13 

with pine on the Ysenburg range and in the Frankfurt forests one 
might suppose that oak is usually a failure here, but such is not the 
case. Above the frost dells it succeeds very well, and indeed, the 
primeval forests of this region contained some of the largest and 
finest oaks of the world, a few of which are still to be seen on the 
Mittledick range. The Frankfurt forest contains a plantation of 
oak, nearly lOO years old, with subservient natural undergrowth of 
beech and hornbeam which looks as good as any of the natural re- 
generation of oak seen in the Spessarts, so famous for its oaks. 
Here in the Rhine valley, however, the beech shows a tendency to 
become the dominant tree if not held in check. This stand of oak 
contains, including the beech, some of which are of merchantable 
size, 19,000 board feet to the acre. 

The annual net revenue of the Frankfurt town forests is $16 a 
hectare, or about $6.50 an acre, in spite of the fact that many a 
sacrifice is made for landscape and recreation purposes. 

S THE ODENWALD 

The Odenwald (plate 7) is a hilly or semimountainous region 
of considerable extent lying east of the Rhine valley and north of 
the Neckar river and Heidelberg. The underlying formation is 
granite at lower elevations and chiefly sandstone at the highest 
elevations, a factor which, taken in connection with the absence of 
limestone, has played a very important part in the development of 
forestry in some parts of the Odenwald. 

The deep, broad valleys of the Odenwald are devoted largely to 
agriculture, while the steepest slopes and higher summits are given 
over to forests. The primeval growth of this region was entirely 
hardwoods, but the region is rapidly changing in aspect as the 
extensive planting of conifers (spruce, fir and pine) which has 
been going on for the past hundred years begins to dominate the 
landscape (plate 8). 

Out of the many interesting ranges in the Odenwald it would be 
hard to pick any one which is typical of the whole region. Each 
range, in which some particular policy has been carried out for a 
long term of years, presents features peculiarly different from 
every other range. 

The policy of the state has been to acquire by purchase the small 
woodlands belonging to the farmers. The latter, however, finding 
the raising of Christmas trees remunerative, are not anxious to 
sell, and it is quite curious that within the state of Hesse, which 



14 

includes the northern part of the Odenwald, the government is 
buying woodlands at a minimum price of $360 an acre, while in the 
adjoining grand duchy of Baden, where the state is not so eager 
to acquire private holdings, there is paid not over $120 an acre for 
woodlands, under otherwise equal conditions. 

The growth of white pine is particularly good everywhere in the 
Odenwald, and on the better classes of soil and on northern slopes 
some very successful results have been obtained with hickory, black 
walnut, red oak and other foreign hardwoods. Beautiful pole- 
woods of silver fir and spruce are seen everywhere and Scotch pine 
is not uncommon. On good soils, however, it is usually the policy 
to make every efifort to retain and build up the mixed hardwood 
stands of oak, ash, maple, basswood and cherry. 

One of the interesting ranges of the Odenwald forests is that of 
Affoltenbach, under the administration of Forstmeister Strack, con- 
sisting of about 8000 acres, one-half being state forests, and the 
other half communal forests, owned by ten different towns and 
hamlets. That of Affoltenbach contains about 1000 acres, and the 
sale of material is conducted by the town council or by the Biirger- 
meister. 

By 1870 the price of oak tan bark had reached such a high figure 
that many towns were tempted to convert their forests into coppice, 
which yielded large returns in short rotations. By 1885 the price of 
oak tan bark had declined to an unprofitable figure and these towns 
were confronted with the problem of reconverting their practically 
valueless coppice into " seed " or " high forests." The poverty of 
the soil and the aggressive growth of heather (Calluna vul- 
garis) in 'the coppice forests have made this a very difficult and 
slow as well as expensive process. Here can be seen as nowhere 
else the relative ability of different tree species to conquer the 
heather, for they have tried almost every conceivable combination to 
overcome its aggressive growth. 

Prior to the oak coppice forests, heather was not a serious menace 
in the forests of this range, and the factors which have brought 
about its domination of the soil, while they could not have been 
anticipated at that time, are now well enough understood. The best 
explanation of this ecological condition which we have in English 
is F. V. Coville's investigations on upland heather soil. He found 
that oak leaves do not only decay very slightly but that they are 
decidedly acid in reaction even when two or three years old. In 
these forests of the Affoltenbach range the introduction of the 
coppice system permitted much sunlight to reach the litter upon the 



15 

ground, which retarded more than ever the natural course of decay 
with the result that an acid litter developed which favored the 
enormous development of heather which is now troubling the 
foresters in many places. The absence of any limestone in the rock 
formations of the region, which might serve as a source of possible 
neutralization of the acid litter, has produced conditions upon the 
introduction of the oak coppice system not unlike the upland heather 
character of much of the southern Appalachian soils. 

Spruce is the species most desired just now, by reason of its com- 
paratively high value and wide range of utilization, but it has a 
slow initial growth and nowhere has it conquered the heather 
unaided by man, to any marked degree. In some places where the 
heather is not too dense the spruce is slowly forging ahead, but the 
process is slow and thus expensive, and these tracts will yield no 
returns for a long time to come. On a small experimental tract 
of one-fourth acre, with spruce 15 years old, and their tops, or 
some of them, barely showing above the dense mat of heather, the 
oberforster has grubbed out the stems and roots of the heather, 
obtaining the enormous quantity of a dozen large loads of the 
dried heather. This was done to see if it would give the spruce a 
chance to get well ahead of the heather before it completely 
dominates the soil again. Shade is fatal to the heather but it is 
difficult for any species unaided to reach a height where it will 
overshade the heather. 

White pine alone shows any marked ability to overcome the 
heather by its rapid height growth and the heavy humus which it 
speedily forms and which seems to choke the heather out of ex- 
istence without much aid from the foresters in charge. Even where 
there is left for the heather under the white pine some overhead 
light the thin layer of needles cast over the heather seems fatal to 
its growth, and it is soon replaced by a smooth carpet of pine 
needles. On the other hand the white pine will not yield any con- 
siderable returns by thinnings and is considered too weak for poles 
and mine props and too soft for firewood. In fact these are 
probably the principal reasons why white pine is not more ex- 
tensively planted in many other places abroad. In the case of the 
Afifoltenbach range the foresters in charge plan to get rid of the 
heather by means of the white pine and then to replace that by 
more desirable species. 

In the small hamlets of the vicinity some characteristic home 
industries which depend upon the forests are to be observed. Hand- 
made split oak shingles are still used to a large extent for roofs and 



16 

sides of houses. The villager buys his oak logs from the state or 
communal forest, paying about $50 a thousand feet for good grade 
material. He dissects the logs into suitable lengths and then splits 
them by hand with a sharp, straight blade to which is attached at 
right angles a wooden handle. The work is facilitated by the use 
of a heavy beech mallet. The villager engaged in this occupation 
sells the shingles for $8.10 a thousand shingles 3 by 10 inches, and 
can cut about 700 shingles a day. It is claimed by them that they can 
cut 4500 shingles from 36 cubic feet of oak, which would be equiva- 
lent to 1000 shingles from every 50 feet board measure. One may 
well doubt this unless the material is uniformly perfect, which 
did not seem to be always the case. Five hundred shingles from 
every 50 feet board measure seems a better estimate, but even at 
this they make excellent returns if they are able to cut 700 shingles 
a day. 

Another home industry is the manufacture of split hoops. Thin- 
nings of oak, beech, hazel etc., three-fourths of an inch to an inch 
in diameter and 6 feet long, are used, being purchased by the vil- 
lager from the forest for about $2.25 a cord, the price varying 
slightly according to the species and quality. The strips are steamed 
and then split into halves by the use of a draw shave, tied into 
bundles containing 600 linear feet each and sold for an average price 
of 50 cents each. They are used very largely for boxes and slack 
cooperage. The refuse and cut ends supply the family with fuel. 
The manufacture of these hoops, while on a small scale, is profitable 
as a side issue to these agricultural people. 

A visit to the Odenwald region is scarcely complete without 
seeing the arboretum on the private estate of the Count von Berg- 
heim at Weinheim, the northernmost town of Baden. The climate 
of most of Europe, and in particular that of the Rhine valley, 
seems to be especially adapted to the growth of the Pacific coast 
conifers. Many forest gardens and botanic gardens of Europe 
contain a large variety of trees but none of them have so many 
foreign trees in large sized plantations as in the estate of Count 
von Bergheim. These steep hillsides were at one time devoted 
largely to vineyards, but about 60 years ago the cultivation of the 
grape was considered a failure here, either from changes in the 
climate or soil, so that the vineyards were abandoned and the estate 
planted to trees, in small compartments from one-eighth to one- 
fourth of an acre each. On each compartment was planted a 
different species, and in some cases a mixture was used, as, for 
example, with the Sequoia washingtoniana (plate 9) 



17 

was planted Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga taxifolia). The 
largest of the redwoods are now 30 inches in diameter and bear an 
abundance of cones nearly every year. According to information 
from an employee of Conrad Apple's seed firm in Darmstadt, the 
seeds from these redwoods possess less than 4 per cent of germina- 
tion. As producers of timber, most of the American conifers in 
cultivation on this estate must be regarded as failures, not because 
of slow growth, for most of them have made phenomenal growth in 
the past 60 years, but because they were planted too far apart and 
are covered with branches nearly to the ground in addition to 
possessing more than the usual taper at the base. 

On this estate are to be seen some fine plantations which, aside 
from the faults noted above, give an excellent idea of the wide 
range of species which can be grown in the climate of the Rhine 
valley. They include : 

Pinus monticola Dougl. 
" lambertiana Dougl. 
" ponderosa Laws. 
" Jeffrey! " Ore. Com." 
" austriaca Hoss. 
Picea sitchensis {Bong.) Trautv. & Mayer 
. Abies concolor (Gord.) Parry 
" cephalonica Lond. 
" pinsapo Boiss. 
Tsuga heterophylla (Raf.) Sarg. 
Pseudotsuga taxifolia {Lam.) Britt. 
Sequoia washingtoniana {Winsl.) Sudw. 
Libocedrus decurrens Torr. 
Thuya plicata Don 
Chamaecyparis lawsoniana {Murr.) Pari. 

" nootkatensis {Lamb.) Spach. 

Tumion calif ornicum {Torr.) Greene 
Many other trees are represented by groups or scattered indi- 
viduals. While most of the species are American, there is a good 
representation of oriental and Japanese conifers. The coast red- 
wood (Sequoia sempervirens (Lamb.) Endl.) would 
hardly be expected to succeed in Germany, in spite of which fact 
there is a clump of half a dozen trees in a sheltered situation at 
Weinheim which might be said to be existing, as they show little 
vigor and some have died. The largest one has produced a few 

cones. 

6 TRIPPSTATT IN THE PALATINATE 

The Palatinate is a beautiful rolling country west of Mannheim 
and the Rhine and belongs to Bavaria. The eastern portion is 



18 

chiefly agricultural while the western portions are semimountainous 
and densely wooded. Trippstatt is reached by carriage from 
Kaiserslautern, which in turn is about two hours train ride west 
from Worms. 

At Trippstatt the underlying rock is soft, red sandstone of Triassic 
origin, and the soil, except the alluvial flats, is of a reddish color 
and contains a large amount of clay. The region was originally 
covered with a hardwood forest and the pine, spruce, fir and larch, 
now perfectly at home and very abundant, are all introductions. 

The Trippstatt range consists of about 10,000 acres, half of which 
is under the direct management of the forstmeister and the other 
half under the management of the forstassessor. Many years ago 
this range was the private property of the Hache family, which 
constituted one of the countless little principalities similar to the 
princes of Ysenburg. The highways in the Palatinate are built and 
maintained by the forest department, a fact which doubtless results 
in a serious lowering of the net revenues. The roads around 
Trippstatt were constructed by the Tellfort method and the complete 
cost was about $5000 a mile. Having charge of the roadways, the 
forest department secures some advantages in return by placing 
many of their little tree nurseries along the roads. A beautiful 
valley, traversed by a winding macadam road, leads from Kaisers- 
lautern up to Trippstatt, and along this road there occurred a few 
years ago one of the few forest fires of recent years. Some fifteen 
acres were burned over and it is said that only a change of wind 
prevented the fire from doing greater damage. The growth was 
beech with clumps of spruce. Curiously enough, it appears as if 
many of the clumps of spruce escaped destruction because they had 
conserved enough moisture in the soil to check the intensity of the 
ground fire, while the beech were entirely killed. 

On the summits of the hills the soil is very poor. Here are some 
quite interesting stands of beech fully 100 years old, the trees small, 
crooked and far apart, while close by are artificial stands of white 
pine 25 years old, in rows, already with an average diameter of 
6 inches and truly fine in appearance. In fact, the excellent ap- 
pearance of the coniferous stands here, whether pure or mixed, of 
even or of uneven age, in contrast to the native growth is most 
surprising. 

Trippstatt, however, has other points of greater interest to the 
forester than these old stands of beech. There is located here a 
Scotch pine experimental garden, where were raised from seed, 
in the same nursery, planted on the same day, and transferred to 



19 

the garden and outplanted in rows the same distance apart and on 
uniform soil, Scotch pine from Hungarian seed, French seed, 
Belgian seed, Finnish seed and native Pfalzian seed. The experi- 
ment is now twelve years old and may be briefly summarized as 
follows : 

The Hungarian pines show many failures, a heavy death rate, 
many of wolfy, unsymmetrical and uneven rate of growth, frequent 
loss of top shoots, not uniform, unhealthy in color, averaging 
slightly over 3 feet in height. 

The French pines are darker in color and more healthy in ap- 
pearance, but show, nevertheless, many failures and a strong in- 
clination to grow wolfy and unsymmetrical. They average about 5 
feet in height. 

The Belgian pines form a stand particularly dense and in which 
there are practically no failures. The trees are now 11 to 13 feet 
tall and have fully conquered the soil. A carpet of needles has 
begun to form beneath them and they are self-pruning their lower 
branches. This stand is the darkest green of all. 

The Pfalzian pines, from seed gathered nearby, average about 
II or 12 feet in height, with very little death rate, are dark green 
and healthy, but owing to the vigor of growth there has been a 
little snowbreak. They seem to differ in no important particular 
from the Belgian trees unless they are a little more symmetrical and 
slightly shorter. 

The Finnish pines are of a uniform light yellow color, averaging 
about 4 feet in height with considerable death rate. The needles 
are short and the whole appearance of the stand indicates slow yet 
uniform and symmetrical growth, which are the features to be ex- 
pected from pines coming from a region with so short a growing 
season as Finland. 

The results of this interesting experiment are already forecasted, 
and they show that seed for forest planting should come from a 
source with a climate, at least, similar to that in which the seeds 
are to be grown, especially if it be a species with as wide a climatic 
range as the Scotch pine. 

Future visitors to this range will also be interested in the experi- 
ments recently started with seed from (i) crooked, (2) wolfy, (3) 
symmetrical mature, and (4) young trees, to determine whether the 
parentage has any influence on the progeny in the transmission of 
such characters as crookedness, unsymmetrical growth, vigor etc. 

Fully as interesting as these experiments, especially to the 
American visitor, is the famous Hacke stand of white pine 120 years 



20 



old, the first made in Germany for forest purposes. These stands 
are upon abandoned pastures. The Baron von Hacke was an officer 
in the Hessian regiments under George III, and after the American 
Revolution returned to his impoverished soil bringing with him a 
quantity of white pine seed. The trees of the original stand average 
today 32 inches in diameter, breast high, and finer white pines are 
not now often seen in our own land. Up to 30 years ago the abun- 
dant regeneration was not preserved, but since that time, under a 
different forest management, the natural stands have been preserved 
and look as thrifty as those so frequently seen upon abandoned 
fields in New England. 

At the head of a picturesque ravine near the village of Trippstatt, 
the forestry associations of the Palatinate, Alsace, and Lorraine have 
erected a tablet commemorating the introduction of white pine by 
Baron von Hacke. From a window of the Hacke baronial mansion, 
a fine old standstone structure, there is obtained a beautiful view 
overlooking a small valley in which there were at one time iron mines 
and furnaces and above which looms some old castle ruins dating 
back into the middle ages. With this view before him, Schiller is 
said to have composed the poem, " Der Gang nach dem Eisen- 
hammer," in 1797, upon the occasion of a visit. The old baronial 
mansion is now devoted to the uses of a forest ranger school where 
boys are educated along general and technical lines beginning at 
the age of 14 years. For its purpose it is well equipped, containing 
excellent mineral and geological collections, wood specimens, fungi, 
stuffed birds, insects etc. 

The following table shows the prices which were received for 
cut timber on the ground in the woods at Trippstatt. It will be 
noticed that white pine here, as elsewhere in Germany, commands 
a high price only when the logs will produce a very high grade of 
lumber. For mine props, pulp, poles and firewood the white pine 
is not highly esteemed. 



GRADES 


I 


2 


3 


4 


SPECIES 


Price in dollars per 
1000 feet b. m. 


25 
27 
26 
30 
45 


20 
22 
20 

23 
26 


15 
19 
17 
19 
16 


II 
II 

12 
9 


Scotch pine 
Spruce 
Fir 
Larch 
White pine 


Diameter in inches. . . 


12 and up 


8 to 12 


6 to 8 


5 to 6 









< 



fe 



21 

7 THE THARANDT FOREST ACADEMY 

Tharandt is about 30 minutes ride on the cars from the central 
station of Dresden and well repays a visit by one interested in 
forestry education. The school is purely technical and is not at- 
tached to any university, but is under the direction of the forest 
department of Saxony. The equipment is excellent in every way 
and especially fine is the instruction and equipment of the depart- 
ments of surveying and sylviculture. Well equipped also are the 
physical and chemical laboratories. The history of the Tharandt 
school is inseparably associated with the name of Heinrich Cotta, 
who died here in 1844 ^^^ is buried in the forest garden above the 
valley surrounded by 80 oaks planted there by his pupils prior to 
his death. 

The forest garden at Tharandt is a sort of arboretum and is 
interesting on account of the fairly large number of foreign trees 
of large size which it contains. It is not a " made " or refilled 
garden and has in consequence several varieties of soil and ex- 
posure. For the most part the specimens are well labeled, but 
occasionally one sees some errors which are not unexpected in a 
large garden with a small staff and a head gardener better trained 
in the care and raising of trees than in their nomenclature. The 
Garden also contains a small museum filled with various dendro- 
logical curiosities. The history of the garden dates back to the 
beginning of the nineteenth century, but most of the American and 
Asiatic species are of comparatively recent introduction. 

Adjacent to the forest garden are several hundred acres of forest 
under the direction of the school and in which the students find 
their practical demonstrations. The original working plans were 
made by Cotta in 181 1, who laid out the compartment lines in rec- 
tangles, not a very convenient method for such a hilly range. More 
recently there has been a reestablishment of roads and lines which 
meander according to the topography so as to facilitate the separa- 
tion of the cove forests from the plateau forests and to facilitate 
forest transportation. The plateau forest of the school range con- 
sists almost entirely of spruce, the best stands of which are about 
no years old and contain some 105 cords to the acre. 

Among certain introduced species for forest planting they have 
tried Douglas fir mixed with spruce. A 25 year old stand of this 
sort shows considerable injury to the fir from heavy snow. 



22 

8 SCHWARZENBERG IN SAXONY AND VICINITY 

The town of Schwarzenberg, like many of the towns in the more 
hilly or semimountainous parts of Saxony on the northern edge of 
the Erzgebirge, has shown a wonderful industrial development 
within very recent years and a consequent increase in population. 
The city of Lauter increased in population from 5000 to 15,000 in 
fifteen years. 

The forest range about Lauter is under the charge of Oberforster 
Dittmann. Another home industry, quite as interesting as those 
seen in the Odenwald, is carried on to a large extent in this vicinity. 
This is the making of split spruce baskets. The only tool used is a 
strong-handled knife with which the villager splits the wood with 
the medullary rays, for strong pieces, or with the annual rings, 
for finer pieces. The smallness and uniformity with which spruce 
can be split with a sharp knife is truly remarkable. The bottom 
of the basket is first made out of thin strips and then the sides are 
constructed. At the top are used strips specially prepared for 
bending by drawing them between a wheel and a round billet of 
wood, in one direction only. The baskets are very light and measure 
about 4 feet by 4 feet by 3 feet deep, and sell for 18 to 25 cents 
each. They eventually find their way for the most part to dealers 
who ship in them straw hats, flowers, plants etc. The children of 
the family are taught this trade from earliest youth, but it appears 
that the main profit in this as in the beautiful lace made by the 
women of this region goes to the dealer or middleman. The spruce 
logs used in the home basket industry cost, delivered to the house, 
about $38 a thousand feet board measure. Different families pro- 
duce baskets of different sizes and quality, some of which sell as low 
as 3 cents. 

The city of Lauter owns about 6000 acres of land upon which the 
growing stock of timber has increased from 54,000 cords in 1847 
on one district to over 100,000 cords today. The other district of 
the city forests shows even a greater increase. 

On the hills above Lauter is the forest known as " Burkhardts- 
wald," facing the factories at Aue and Lauter. The rapid develop- 
ment of the industries at these places and especially the metal-ware 
industry, has played sad havoc in these woodlands. The former 
owners (city of Zwickau) took no protective measures but brought 
suit against the state of Saxony, which is part owner of certain 
dye and metal-ware works in the valley below and which was held 
responsible in a large measure for the destruction of the forests 



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23 

by fumes and gases issuing from their chimneys. The state of 
Saxony, in order to avoid further htigation, bought the tract in 
1900 for $125 an acre. 

All sorts of experiments have been tried here to secure a forest 
growth which will not be killed by the fumes. The spruce is suffer- 
ing badly all around here from the work of a weevil, so much so, 
that in one fine pole-wood seven out of every ten trees had been 
removed for this cause alone. Of mixed plantations of conifers and 
hardwoods it appears that here the native birch (Betula 
pendula) is most resistant to the fumes, that Japanese larch 
does better than the German larch, that Scotch pine and Jack pine 
are more resistant than white pine. 

The Antonsthal range, for nearly a quarter of a century in charge 
of Oberforster Gleier, is reached by a short train ride from Schwar- 
zenberg. Like most of the Saxon Erzgebirge, the slopes are steep 
and the soil, except in the bottoms, thin and sterile. It is rare to 
find any regeneration of spruce or fir from self-sown seeds, although 
considerable effort has been made to bring about that result. Re- 
planting with 3 year old spruce is the common practice. The spruce 
are raised in shifting nurseries close to where they will be out- 
planted. Transplanting of the spruce before outplanting is ap- 
parently not practised. 

The forests of this region reflect the character of the recent 
economic development of this part of Saxony. The abundant water 
power has encouraged the development of paper pulp mills, with a 
corresponding demand for spruce pulp wood. The result has been 
a rapid transformation of the old stands of large sized spruce and 
fir into spruce forests of short rotations, of 35 to 45 years. This 
means a smaller investment and a correspondingly higher net 
revenue. The pulp mills, of which there are several in the vicinity 
of Antonsthal, derive their supply of pulp wood from the home 
range or from Bohemia by rail. 

The Breitenbrunn range, in charge of Oberforster Thomas, ad- 
joins the Antonsthal range and presents about the same features. 
Spruce is the prevalent species everywhere except upon a few more 
fertile spots where ash, maple and beech are planted. In 1908 this 
range was visited by a particularly severe wind and snow storm 
so that 30,000 cubic meters of timber were broken down by the 
snow and wind. As a consequence the net revenue on this range 
for that year was the highest in Saxony, or 5.1 per cent. 



24 

9 THE BLACK FOREST 

I dare say that no one who has ever visited the region of the 
Black Forest fails to look back upon that visit as one of the mile- 
stones upon life's journey. A semimountainous region extending 
from the Neckar at Heidelberg to the Swiss border and from 
the valley of the Rhine across Baden and most of Wiirttem- 
berg, for the most part covered with forests of spruce or fir and 
with small farms and villages in the valleys, with its fine roads 
reaching to every portion of the forest, presents a picture of beauty 
that does not fade quickly from the mind. 

In the days of the primeval Black Forest the conditions were 
somewhat like those prevailing on the Pacific coast 20 years ago, as 
regards lumbering operations. The timber most accessible was cut 
first. The operations were reckless, timber rights were sold cheaply 
or were given away. The logging camps were established where 
there was a little tillable soil, and from such beginnings have come 
the numerous little villages of the Black Forest. The men worked 
in the woods, and during periods when woods work was slack they 
cultivated their little tracts of ground, built roads, wove baskets 
and carved wood. The government received, on the average, only 
6 cents a log in those days. No working plans existed, as all the 
timber was mature ; but with the development of railroads and new 
markets and the enlargement of the market from a local one to a 
far-reaching one, the value of the Black Forest rose by leaps and 
bounds in spite of the rapid cutting away of the primeval forest. 

The Black Forest covers 500,000 acres in Baden and 600,000 acres 
in Wiirttemberg. Much of it is now private (such as the enormous 
holdings of the princes of Fiirstenberg), communal, state and stock 
companies. 

The early method of marketing the timber was to raft the logs 
down the streams to Holland or intermediate markets, but prior 
to 1718 the existence of many little principalities through which the 
logs must pass to a market made it expensive or unremunerative 
in spite of the low cost of the stumpage. After 1718, by means of 
a treaty between the various small states, the rafting of logs 
became possible upon a large scale. 

No good records exist of the forest conditions of the Black Forest 
prior to 1758, when the region is said to have contained more than 
80,000 feet of timber an acre, and many trees contained as high 
as 28,000 board feet each. 

The companies rafting logs to Holland in some cases acquired 



Plate 13 




Tower on the summit of Badener Hohe, one of the 
high subalpine points of the Black Forest. The 
native growth consists largely ofPinus mon- 
t an a . 



I— I 




Plate 15 




Numerous " roads " which are rarely used except for the 
transportation of woods products and for winter 
sports, often serve at the same time as " compartment 
hnes " 



25 

tracts of timber which they still hold and operate. That their early 
operations consisted in taking only the best is testified by Jager- 
schmidt who, in 1828, writes that the tracts over which they had 
logged contained still many fine trees over i foot in diameter and 
100 feet tall. Only the very best trees were taken out in the same 
way that the early lumbering operations in this country were con- 
ducted. 

The lowest and easiest slopes were logged first and hence today 
we find for the most part the best and oldest stands (second growth) 
closest to the streams and in the most accessible places, while at the 
higher altitudes and most inaccessible places where the good roads 
have only penetrated within the past 50 years we find the youngest 
stands, for it was here that the primeval growth was cut last. 

Stumpage prices in the Black Forest have risen very rapidly, 
even recently. In the past 5 years from $13 to $17, and from $20 
to $26 for the better stufif. Only since there has come to be a 
market for any and all products of the forest have working plans 
come to be a feature of Black Forest operations. Formerly the 
working plans were made for periods of lOO years, but with the 
increasing realization that conditions of market and transportation 
and demand change rapidly, these working plan periods have been 
made shorter and shorter, until plans for 10 year periods are con- 
sidered quite sufficient in most places. 

A working plan of a German forest is an interesting document 
and consists of : 

a Inventory of values at hand (statement of facts) ; and includes 
timber, pasture, hunting rights, value of land, minerals, water 
power, mill property, roads, logs cut and on hand, nursery 
sites, agricultural land, etc. 

b Boundaries, organization, means of logging, etc. 

c Market and relative demand for the various products, local or 
foreign. 

d Working plan (that is, changes of fact to be made or provided 
for). Herein is outlined the work to be carried out on the 
forest in the future. 

What a working plan provides is of course largely governed by 
the owner's opinion. An optimistic owner will cut little; hence 
changes will be toward increasing the investment. A pessimistic 
owner will want heavy cuts, discarding all but what commands the 
highest price (as pulp wood in Saxony). In Saxony they did not 
rely on an increase in stumpage; in the Black Forest they did and 



26 

have accumulated timber capital. Again, Saxony's method has 
created their highest present values and they have the highest present 
returns on their invested capital (which is relatively small). In 
Saxony, neither the demand nor the price of large logs has increased. 
The rise has been greatest for the small material and hence Saxony 
has reaped and continues to reap today the highest returns, while 
the Black Forest has the highest value in forest capital with the 
smallest returns. 

The larger logs are sawn into lumber at the mills, in or near the 
forest, while most of the other forest products, such as poles, mine 
props, railroad ties, Christmas trees and pulp wood are assembled at 
a railroad station for shipment to centers of consumption of such 
products. (Plate i6) 

10 GRAMSCHATZ FOREST, BAVARIA 

The Gramschatz district is situated in a great bend of the Main 
river in northern Bavaria, 15 kilometers north of Wtirzburg. There 
is a fine automobile road through the forest, over which during the 
summer there are run for the benefit of visitors automobile buses to 
a little inn known as the " Einseidel " in the heart of the woods. 

The Gramschatz district is administered by Forstmeister Gleich, 
who has his headquarters at Thungen, to the west of the forest. 
The forest comprises two districts of about 5000 acres each. The 
eastern district, containing the best timber, is in charge of Assessor 
Friedrich. 

The underlying rock is fresh limestone and cupar limestone, the 
disintegration of which results in a deep and fertile soil. In 
some of the quarries from which stone for the roads is taken are 
found large petrified shells, some of which have a diameter of 10 
inches, while petrified mollusks and fishes are common in the rock 
of this section. The rich soil is responsible for the prosperous agri- 
cultural communities here. The 400 inhabitants of the village of 
Gramschatz are said to be very wealthy. The village, however, 
owns no timber land as do most other German villages, but is 
forced to obtain its supplies from the state forests. This may 
explain the high price of fuel wood, for which is being paid as high 
as $15 a cord in the woods. 

In 1806 the Gramschatz forest was owned by the archbishop of 
Wtirzburg, who used it as a hunting park. Old ponds made for 
the deer to bathe in and ditches used for the drives are still to be 
seen here and there in the woods. The forest was formerly managed 



0) 

■(-> 

a 

I— I 




27 

as coppice under standards, the coppice being treated in rotations 
of 32 years, and consisting of hornbeam, basswood, birch, oak and 
beech. The white oaks and beech were the standards for the former 
coppice and there is still left an enormous number of these prime 
white oaks, which are being gradually cut. 

The Gramschatz administration receives for its timber, prices 
ranging from $15 to $100 a cubic meter, the latter price for the 
best veneer oak. The gross receipts obtained at the auctions of 
timber aggregate over $60,000 a year for this range. 

The coppice under standards system began in 1806, when the 
archbishop was deprived of his possessions, which were then made 
over to the " Reichsverweser." In 1814 the lands were turned over 
to the kingdom of Bavaria, which continued to cut down the coppice 
woods and to replace them by a high forest. The pole woods of 
beech, now over 90 years old, are particularly fine, excelling in 
straight trunks and rapid growth. The heavy mast years for oak 
which occurred in 1897 and in 1900 were taken advantage of for the 
planting of large areas to oak. There is probably nowhere in 
Germany, unless it be in the Spassart region famous for its oaks, 
a better second growth of oak than in the eastern part of the 
Gramschatz forest. The oak timber of the Gramschatz forests is 
but little inferior in quality to that of the more famed Spessarts, 
where several giants of the primeval forest still exist (plate 17). 

The last working plan advanced has been a return to the coppice 
system. As a matter of fact, however, the coppice system here has 
been very much overdone and it is noteworthy that the management 
has agreed to reproduce hornbeam, having complained so much of 
the plague of mice, which has caused wholesale destruction of the 
hornbeam and also of basswood and beech, while oak remains intact. 
The resultant usurpation of the weeds and grasses make it necessary 
to obtain regeneration from self-sown seeds of hornbeam or beech 
and to adopt the planting of spruce. The spruce seems to do 
particularly well. A plantation of spruce 55 years old, planted 
originally in alternation with elm, is as fine a stand of spruce as 
obtains anywhere in Germany. The beech mast of 1909 has been 
spoiled by a plague of black snails which are said to feed at night, 
defoliating the beech seedlings absolutely. 

Such portions of the range as are not allotted to oak are regener- 
ated in beech and hornbeam, which are meant to make up two-thirds 
of the growing stock. The remainder consists of pine and spruce, 
planted, or, in the case of pine, raised from seed. In addition to 
these, larch is being planted on a larger scale than formerly. 



28 

The oak trees dating back to the early coppicing system have a 
very coarse grain and seem to heal the scars of old branches 
particularly well. The growth of the oak is very uniform and fine. 
For the oak timber, a very high price is realized, especially for logs 
showing a pinkish color at the ends, and further for straight logs 
of small taper. The highest grade of veneer oak brings from $300 
to $400 a cubic meter,, while the second class of oak brings from 
$90 to $180 a cubic meter. This is equivalent to an average price 
of $30 a thousand feet for timber of all grades. The average price 
received for cord wood of all grades is $9. 

The estimate of a fairly typical strip through a stand of beech 
and oak showed 102 beeches an acre with an average diameter of 
10 inches (beech being 100 years old), and 2508 board feet of 
lumber. The oaks on the same strip numbered 23, with an average 
diameter of 26 inches, and a total of 13,189 board feet. The average 
annual increment is about 160 board feet an acre. 

The roads throughout the Gramschatz range are rather poor, 
owing to the deep soil and the poor grade of stone available for 
road building within the, forest. About $4000 is being spent annually 
for the construction of permanent roads. 

II HEIDELBERG CITY FOREST 

The city of Heidelberg owns about 7000 acres of forest land. 
Originally the mountain sides and plateaus about Heidelberg were 
covered with decrepit hardwood forests, but now most of the forests 
situated more than 800 feet above the city are softwoods. The 
spruce stands, 50 to 65 years old, are excellent but have suffered con- 
siderably from drought in 1910, and also from snow and ice. A 
thinning was made in the 50 year old spruce in 1903 which netted 
$30 an acre. Then came severe damage resulting from snow and 
ice which made it necessary to remove the damaged trees, netting 
another $30 an acre, and the thinnings made necessary by the more 
recent drought yielded a further $10 an acre. In spite of this the 
spruce forests look dense enough and one would scarcely believe 
that so much material had been removed. The soil itself is valued 
at $50 an acre. The growing of spruce on these high slopes of the 
Heidelberg forest appears to be particularly remunerative to the 
city, as peeled pulp wood brings in the woods a price of $8.75 to 
$9.50 a cord. 

The plateau portions of the forests contain considerable Scotch 
pine of inferior quality which, however, is sold for box material 



Plate 17 




A Spessart oak, estimated to be about 700 years old, 
containing 9 cords of wood, including veneer logs 
which will sell for over $500 



29 

at $11.50 a cubic meter with bark. This material is in great demand 
for the manufacture of ammunition boxes and the recent wars and 
the preparations for war seem to have caused a great increase in 
the price for the lower grades of Scotch pine. 

At the base of the mountain slope just above the city is an old 
chestnut orchard, planted privately about 125 years ago for the pro- 
duction of chestnuts. Cheap transportation from the south has 
ruined the local chestnut market and this orchard, on a slope too 
steep for agricultural purposes, was purchased by the city about 
60 years ago. The trees were originally in rows about 20 feet apart. 
The chestnut logs obtained from this stand are cut into large billets 
and exported to Holland where they bring about $20 a thousand 
board feet and from them is manufactured tight cooperage for the 
export of brandies. Following the removal of the largest trees there 
occurred a wonderfully fine regeneration of chestnut, which seemed 
to the local authorities an unheard of thing. They are now cutting 
the chestnuts downward from the top of the stand as fast as the 
regeneration progresses. Mixed with the chestnut regeneration is 
some maple. 

Black locust, of which there is quite an abundance scattered along 
the lower slopes, brings a price of $10 a cubic meter for spokes 
and hubs. 

On the higher slopes and plateau to the north of the city the 
forest was originally all hardwoods, but with centuries of misuse 
they became unprofitable and were for the most part transformed 
into coppice hardwoods, while the soil became dried and sterile. 
With the beginning of the last half century these slopes were planted 
mostly by seed planting to Scotch pine below and spruce or fir 
above with considerable larch intermixed. This was done because 
it was believed that the more modest conifers would have a chance 
to succeed and to become profitable here where the hardwoods 
had failed. That they have paid is doubtless true, but the result 
has been the formation of a vast even-aged stand of conifers, often 
subject to severe snowbreak, windfall, and the ever present danger 
of a vast forest fire. The general tendency, now that the conifers 
are well established, is to break up these even-aged stands into small 
compartments of varying age and species and wherever the soil and 
exposure warrants it, the introduction again of hardwoods. 

On one of the upper slopes is to be seen the present day result 
of the planting of the so-called " Jager's mixture." Fifty years ago 
or more there was planted here a mixture of seeds of Scotch pine, 
spruce and larch. Today it looks like a pure Scotch pine stand from 



30 

a distance, the pines being 8 to lo inches in diameter, a few of the 
larch have succeeded, but the spruce have remained suppressed from 
the first and are but 2 or 3 feet tall beneath the pines. That they 
have all lived shows the wonderful power of spruce to withstand 
suppression. Beginning at the top, Oberforster Krutina, who is 
in charge of the Heidelberg forests, started a few years ago grad- 
ually to take out the pine, with the result that the spruce has 
developed rapidly and has apparently lost nothing in vigor due to 
its half century of suppression. 

The growing stock of the Heidelberg city forest has more than 
doubled in the past 75 years, as has also the annual cut. It is a 
startling surprise to read in detail, from the working plans, the 
amount and variety of forest products that this city forest produces 
annually, with the maximum production apparently not yet in sight. 

On the brow of the high plateau to the south of the city and 
looking toward the Rhine river valley is a forest experimental tract 
which contains even-aged stands of Douglas fir, Engelmann spruce 
and other exotic species. The arboretum contains many interesting 
groups of trees and shrubs, among them being Juniperus sa~ 
bina, Juniperus virginiana, Tsuga canadensis, 
Cedrus atlantica, Sequoia washingtoniana (36 
inches in diameter and 37 years old) , Nyssa sylvatica. 
Ginkgo biloba, Abies polita, Abies pinsapo, 
Pinus pence, Pinus monticola, Pinus lamber- 
tiana. Thuya plicata, Thuya occiden talis, 
C h a m a e cy p a r i s lawsoniana, Cedrus deodar, 
Hicoria alba, and many others. 



LfcO ib 



